Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme.  I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. How  are you today? 

Steve: I am a tad harried. I shouldn't say harried because I don't have much hair. My office is still torn up because of the water damage, and I have a guy coming over  today to help me. Yesterday, we put the flooring down, and I'm a little too old for  doing all this stuff, but you have to do what you have to do. 

Scott: Oh, my heart goes out to you. 

Steve: Well, thank you. It's funny. I'm just, "Oh, well." What are you going to do? You  can't turn the clock back. I'm looking forward to this section of Scripture because I  really do love the Bible, and I love Genesis. There's so much packed in these chapters. We could have done a podcast on each of these chapters, but we want to keep moving  right along so that those of us that are reading the bible through for the first time are  going to perhaps receive some insights and encouragement. We're going to talk about  Genesis 20 through 30. 

As in every chapter of Genesis there is a lot of truth. I feel rich being able to talk  about it and to mine the depths. Let's pray. Father, here we are again. We come with  open hearts and teachable minds, and I pray that You'll give us those if we don't have  them right now. 

Soften our hearts, soften our ears, clear them out so that we can hear not only what  Steve and Scott say, but what the spirit is saying to us as we contemplate these sacred  Scriptures. Give us insights, bless our conversations, and let all be encouraged today  in Jesus' name. Amen. 

Scott: Amen. 

Steve: We start in the 20th chapter, and this is where we have Abraham journeying,  and he came to a town of Gerar. I don't even know how to pronounce that. I'm  guessing it's Gerar, G‑E‑R‑A‑R. He's a little bit nervous because he has a really pretty  wife. He tells the king, Abimelech. As I looked up in the Hebrew, Abi Melek, Abi is  father, Melek is king. 

It could be, "My father is king," or "King of my father," but it's the two words there ‑ father, king. Father is king or father of a king. He's the king. Apparently, the king gets  all the pretty girls, and so Sarah is with Abimelech. God intervened and told him,  "You're going to be a dead man in the morning if you don't restore this man's wife." It's very readable. I don't think I need to go through and comment very much on it. I  think we do need to comment on the fact that even though Sarah was his wife, she  was also his stepsister. 

They had a different mom. Technically, he was right when he said, "She's my sister,"  because he's, as Abraham's explaining to Abimelech, "She's the daughter of my  father, though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife." 1

We're going to see this pop up again before we're done today because Isaac follows  the same deception. I thought, "Well, he learned it from his dad, and this is what this  is what he learned." In the 21st chapter, we see the miraculous birth of Isaac. In these 10 chapters, we're going to witness three miraculous births. These are three  births that would not have happened if God had not intervened. These were not  natural. It took a lot of prayer and seeking God for these women to have babies. I think that that's clearly foreshadowing the birth of Jesus, which was a miraculous  birth, the miraculous birth. It's contrasted, this birth which is miraculous to Sarah  versus the one that seemed easy through her slave, Hagar. We've already talked about  this, Hagar and Ishmael. 

I think it's worth reading in Galatians 4:22, “It is written that Abraham had two sons,  one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. The son of the slave was born  according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.”  Two key words there, the flesh and the promise.  

“Now this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants. One is  from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now, Hagar is Mount  Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem for she is in slavery with her  children. The Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.” 

You see that Paul is building his whole teaching on the fact that these people he was  teaching understood Hagar and Sarah. Then Abimelech has his eyes opened, he  recognizes that this man is not just a man. He's special and a prophet of God. He said, "I need to make a covenant with you, brother. We need to make peace. I want  to be on the same team as you." Oh, boy. Bad joke there. Ewe. In the 28th verse,  Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. Abimelech asked him, "What are the  meaning of these seven ewe lambs?" 

Abraham said, "These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be  a witness for me that I dug this well." Therefore, the place was called Beersheba  because there both of them swore an oath. They made a covenant at Beersheba. Beer, B‑E‑E‑R, means well. Sheba represents seven, as there were seven ewe lambs,  but we know seven is a significant number in the Bible. It can also be translated oath.  It's the well of oath, and this is where we are introduced to Beersheba. It's not the only time you're going to learn about Beersheba because it appears 10  times in the Bible. As you're reading through the historical books of the Bible, you're  going to hear “from Dan to Beersheba”. Dan was in the North. Beersheba was in the  South, and it was almost like saying from Minnesota to Florida or something. It was  north to south. 

Genesis 22. I have talked about this on several podcasts in the past. I don't want to  redo it, but this is where Abraham offers up Isaac. He calls this place Jehovah Jireh.  Jehovah meaning God, and Jireh, to everybody except Steve and Scott, this is  translated provide. 

We grow up with Sunday school posters on the wall, "Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will  provide," and we sing songs about it. 

Several years ago when I was learning how to examine the Hebrew, I discovered that  the word Reh in Jireh, is from the root word Ra'ah, which in Hebrew is used 1,306  times and all but five of those, it's a form of seeing or appearing. Even in this chapter,  several times, it means to see, and it's translated to see. 

Somehow, translators have referred to this word as provide, but I believe it should be  see. It's not only not the only time we're going to see this R‑E‑H, this combination of  consonants that represents see, but Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah  will see. That's how I think it should be translated. 

As it is said to this day on the Mount Of Jehovah, it shall be seen. That's the point.  When God sees, God takes care of the situation, and God saw what was happening  there. He was testing Abraham. Abraham passed the test, and we read in Hebrews is  because in his mind, he thought it's OK because God can restore him from the dead. He was fully determined to obey God to the hilt. Then there's so many messianic  foreshadowings and pretty clear here because he doesn't have to kill Isaac because  God provides a ram. God saw what was happening, and he put a ram there, and the  ram was offered in the place of Isaac. I can see why we would want to call it provided,  but I really think to be faithful to the Hebrew, 1,306 times, it should be seeing. Chapter 23, Ephraim the Hittite. Sarah passes, and Abraham wants to bury her. He  had his eye on a piece of property, so he sat down with the elders of that town. It's a  fascinating insight into how business was transacted in those days. Ephraim the Hittite, says, "Oh, no. No. Abraham, you're a great man. Here, take the  field even though it's worth 400 or something. Abraham listened because Ephraim  had set the price, and so Abraham paid for it. 

I thought that was fascinating because he didn't use his status or his wealth or his  means. He wanted to pay a fair price for the land, and he did. It was similar to what  David did when he bought the land for the temple. The man said, "No. David, you're  the king. Take it. How do I even give you the rest of the stuff here? You can have the  oxen.” David said, "No. No way. I'm paying for this." It was so honorable to watch  Abraham and David make these transactions.  

Genesis 24. This is an interesting chapter. All these are interesting, but Abraham is  determined that his son Isaac would have a wife. His mother has passed. He needs  comfort. Abraham sends his trusted servant, one that has been with him the longest. We know Abraham was a godly man, and, boy, I like this servant. I like the way he  does business. I like the way he carries himself. Abraham has rubbed off on him. His  ace in the hole, as Abraham says, "God's going to send His angel." Now that changes  everything. So far in the first 24 chapters of Genesis, angels are mentioned seven  times. 

Angels, which are mentioned over 200 times in the "Old Testament," are translated  either angel or messenger. 101 times, the word is translated angel. 100 times it is  translated messenger. Malak. It's close to King. King is melek, like M‑E‑L‑E‑K, and  malak is M‑A‑L‑A‑K. They're similar. There is an angel going along on the journey. 

I don't want to so focus on Abraham and Sarah and Isaac, but there is a lot of  miraculous intervention here, like the birth of Jesus, which was miraculous. There  were many angels which appeared during the time of, "Joseph, ready to put her away?  No. Angel talked to him. How about this? No. Angel appears to him. Don't go here. Go  here." 

There was angelic presence, you might say, in these significant events in our heritage.  In the 33rd verse, Abraham's servant is praying. God leads him to this house, and he  goes there. He sees Rebecca, and meets her family. They said, "Oh, have a seat. Have  something to eat." 

Here's what he says. "I will not eat until I have said what I have to say." They said, "OK.  Easy peasy." Then they say, "Speak on." He said, "I am Abraham's servant. Jehovah has  greatly blessed my master." I read that, and I think, "Yes. In all your ways,  acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths." 

This servant was not being careful about his faith. He said, "No. I'm Abraham's  servant, number one, and Jehovah is the one who's blessed my master." Then they  negotiate. They go back and forth. 

Then in the 49th verse, "If you are going to show steadfast love and faithfulness to my  master, tell me. If not, tell me that I may turn to the right hand or to the left. I have things to do. I didn't come up here to spend the summer. I didn't come up here  to sit around and enjoy the hospitality of your tent. I'm on a mission. If you're going  to go with it, let's go. If you're not, let me know. I need to know right now." They said, "Well, let's talk to the woman." Then it says in the 55th verse, they said,  "Let the young woman remain with us a while, at least 10 days. After that, she may  go." He said to them, "Do not delay me. Since Jehovah has prospered my way, send  me away that I may go to my master." He left. 

It was pretty quick. He was there, boom, boom. I love that fact that he stuck to his  guns. We read other places in Scripture where people are cajoled, you might say, to  tarry too long, and they pay the price. This servant was not messing around. You can  see why he was second in command. 

Then in the 62nd verse of chapter 24, Isaac is out meditating in the field. All I could  think of was like Adam walking with God in the evening. He'd worked all day, and now  I'm going to reconnect with my dad. He's out in the field, and he sees this caravan  coming. Rebecca, who's that? And she departs. 

Then Isaac sets up camp. The first time it's mentioned, I think, is in the 62nd chapter  and later in the next chapter, but he said he had returned from Beer Lahai Roi. Now we know what bier means. It means well, we know what Roi means. See, the Ra'ah, the  Roi, it's the same root. It means see. 

You put the Lahai together, it's the well of Him Who sees me is a possible  interpretation. It's the well of Him Who sees me. Isaac felt he was seen. He named it  Beer Lahai Roi, and you'll see that pop up later. 

Chapter 25, another miraculous verse. Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca.  40 years. Isaac prayed to Jehovah for his wife because she was barren, and God  granted his prayer, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived 20 years later. The children  struggled together within her, and she said, "If it is thus, why is this happening to  me?" 

She went to inquire of Jehovah. She said, "What's going on? I can tell that something's  happening inside me." Jehovah said to her, "Two nations are in your womb. Two  peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other.  The older shall serve the younger." 

This is something that we are going to see open up. We already have Isaac, child of  promise, Ishmael, child of the flesh, slave. Ishmaelites, you're going to see them in  the Bible. Now we have another conflict being set up. You've got the children of Jacob  versus Esau. 

Esau is going to turn into the Edomites, and they're going to be one of the thorns in  Israel's flesh. We also see something called the birthright. Jacob, the younger, makes  a deal for a bowl of lentils, and it says that Esau despised his birthright. Now when Abraham, who only had one son, when he blessed Isaac, Isaac got the  whole shebang. He got the blessing and the birthright. In 25 and 26, we see them  separated. We see the birthright first, which normally goes to the oldest, but now  goes to Jacob because he sold it for a pan of lentils. We also are going to see the  blessing. 

In chapter 26, there's a lot happening here. I don't pretend to understand all of it, but  I think most of it is self explanatory. The first thing we see is Isaac settling in Gerar. When he's there, Abimelech ‑ I don't know if it's the same Abimelech or if Abimelech  was a title, like father is king ‑ Abimelech calls out Isaac. He says, "I saw you with  Rebecca, another pretty woman, and she's your wife." The same thing happened as  with Abraham. He responds, "No. She's my sister." 

They weren't stepsisters. She wasn't his sister. Abraham was technically correct.  Although I have noted that women generally do not like the story about Abraham and  Sarah because they feel like he left her vulnerable in a foreign king's household. I get  that. Probably not as much as my wife does, but I understand it. 

The same thing happens. Isaac follows the footsteps of Abraham. I know many of you  listening are homeschoolers, and it's very real to me that I grew up with a slew of  people that influenced me ‑ my Sunday school teachers, my teachers, my coaches, my  youth group leaders, my Boy Scout leaders. I was involved in so many activities. 

When you homeschool, you have a bigger influence because your kids don't have 20  people speaking into their life. They pretty much have mom and dad and maybe some  of your extended family. Those are primary. Not only, hopefully, do our good things  pass on to our children, but our mistakes pass on to our children because Isaac was  with Abraham for a long time. 

He heard the stories. He knew what had happened. He goes to Abimelech. He thinks,  "Oh, this is well, how you get out of this."  

There are more wells being dug in this 26th chapter. 

27th chapter, this is where we see which can confuse people and upset some people,  but you do see this blessing of Jacob over Esau. There's parts in there where Jacob  says, "No. If I do this, I'm going to be cursed." His mother said, "Let the curse be on  me. You obey me." 

If you're Jacob, you're caught because your mother's telling you one thing, and you  want to honor her and obey her. What she's doing is not right. He said, "This is going  to blow up on our face." She says, "No. I'll take the curse." Then Isaac did ask him,  "Are you Esau?" He said, "I am." That's a lie. 

I don't know what to make of it, but I do know, it says later in the Bible, Jacob I loved,  Esau I hated. I have to trust that God knows what's happening here. God understands  all the dynamics. God sees the heart of people, and God is righteous and faithful in all  

His ways. He sees things the way they are, and it doesn't appear right to us. Unfortunately, Jacob gets a lot of flack. Many people in the churches where I've  attended, they have nothing to do with Jacob. They think, "The guy's the supplanter.  He stole this, did this, weaseled the other one out." God never rebukes Jacob. He  doesn't. God never talks down about Jacob in the Bible. 

I'm holding it at arm's length, but I'm recognizing that Jacob did inherit not only the  birthright, he also got the blessing. We're going to see this at the end of Genesis  when Jacob blesses his children. 

Now Jacob is hated, so Jacob is sent away. Jacob, on the way, in the 28th chapter, this  is hugely significant, and we've spent a good bit of time on this. This was covered in  podcast number 478. In podcasts 465 through 470, we studied the rock in Scripture,  and this is a significant place where the rock appears in Scripture. I'm not going to  redo all six of those podcasts. I'm going to read through this. 

“Taking one of the stones of the place, Jacob put it under his head and laid down that  place to sleep. He dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and  on top of it reached to heaven. 

“Then behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it, and behold,  Jehovah stood above it and said, ‘I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham, your father, and  the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your offspring.’" 

This is a single man fleeing for his life from the wrath of his older hunter brother.  He's by himself. He's sleeping. He's using a rock for a pillow. This is hard stuff, and  yet God appears to him, and he reiterates the promises to Abraham and to Isaac. He goes on. "Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth. You shall spread  abroad to the West and to the East, to the North and to the South, and in you and in  your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and  will keep you wherever you go." 

Oh, man. I bet you He loved those words. "We'll bring you back to this land. I will not  leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Then Jacob awoke from his  sleep and says, "Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I did not know it." Then he was  afraid and said, "How awesome is this place? This is none other than the house of  God, Bethel, and this is the gate of heaven." 

He saw angels ascending and descending. He saw God on the top of the staircase or  the ladder. Early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head  because he connected the dots. It was this stone. He set it up for a pillar, and he  poured oil on the top of it. Then 22nd verse, this stone which I have set up for a pillar  shall be God's house. 

We've discussed this, but this is a special thing. You can't help but see Jesus because  there's no other way to the Father except through the Son. We know later that this  stone is going to be the one that gave the water to the children of Israel in the  wilderness. 

There's a lot that happens in that 28th chapter of Genesis, and it's when Jacob is  fleeing for his life, and he comes upon Laban, Uncle Laban, Rebecca's brother. If I may  say so, Jacob met his match in Uncle Laban. Maybe he had some issues with being  tricky boy in his house with Esau, but boy, he met his match in Uncle Laban because  he was tricky uncle. 

You read about this in the 29th and 30th chapters. You see a whole bunch of children  married because uncle Laban tricked Jacob. He thought he was marrying Rachel.  Instead, he married Leah. He ended up getting two slave women also to have children  with, and we see the 12 tribes plus Dinah appear. They're born. 

It's not hidden that the children are named appropriately because it tells them, I  named them this because of this relationship with your father. Leah and Rachel  named their children according to how they appeared and what was going on in their  lives. Interesting dynamic. 

I wouldn't want to be a psychologist, this dynamic between having two sisters. I don't  recommend it. Miraculous birth number three happens in Genesis 30:22. God  remembered Rachel. God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and  bore a son and said, "God has taken away my reproach." 

She called his name Joseph, saying, "May Jehovah add to me another son." That's what  Joseph means, by the way. I have a son named Joseph. He shall add. There you go.  God answered her prayer because then he got a little brother named Benjamin. There we did. Miraculous birth number three. All of these children of promise, all of  them were miraculously born. Joseph, Isaac, Jacob, they all had miraculous  conceptions, if I can put it that way. Scott. What do you think about those 10  chapters? 

Scott: Well, to me, the overarching theme seems to be God's favor, and it's God's  favor, not our choice or any of these, because you think about the children of Israel,  you think about God's chosen people, they weren't something we would have chosen  necessarily. 

All this craftiness and scheming and whatever with Isaac and Esau and Jacob. I mean,  it's all you're sitting there scratching your head. 

Steve: It's carnal.  

Scott: The only thing I can think of it is that God will have favor on him. God will have  favor. That's how it works. I was reminded that Rich Mullins has a song called "Jacob  and Two Women." He says it right towards the beginning. He says, "Well, it's right  there in the Bible, so it must not be a sin, but it sure does seem like an awful trick." I think that pretty much sums it all up. We're all scratching our heads looking at some  of this stuff. 

Steve: Yep. There's going to be other things we're going to read in the Bible. We're  going to scratch our heads, and perhaps that's why I don't have any hair. However,  that's when I go back to my whole card. God is good. God is righteous. God is faithful.  I believe someday we're going to get to heaven, and we're going to see things from  His perspective. We're going to go, "Oh. Sorry."  

Scott: Well, Jacob must have been better than everybody else or Abraham must have  been better than everybody else or something. Maybe there was something different,  but I tend to think it was all God's doing that made it the way it was because God  chose it that way. 

Steve: I think God saw something in Jacob because when he wrestled with him, he  didn't lose. That's what Israel means. We're getting ahead of ourselves. That's coming  up. I've never wrestled with God in one or at least tied, and that's what Israel he was  named because of that. God's priorities and God's perspectives are often different  than ours. 

At the same time, I agree with you. We need to look at it for what it says. There was  some tricky business going on there, and I didn't understand it. It doesn't look right  to me, but I'm also a not God, and God didn't rebuke them, so we'll go with it.  Scott: Yeah. The other thing I thought was, you know, with the blessing when you  mentioned that, I I was reminded of, you think that's a weird blessing and the curse  and whatever how Jacob steals the blessing from Esau.  

I'm like, "We'll wait until Jacob blesses all of his sons when he's dying." Man, there's  some weird stuff in there. That's a blessing? Anyway, it definitely makes you scratch  your head some more. It's a little teaser, I guess.  

Steve: It does help us to see the importance of the blessing because they knew it  back then. Today, we think, "Oh, that's what you do when you sneeze ‑ God bless  you."  

Scott: Right. 

Steve: No. This is nothing to sneeze at. This is big stuff, receiving the blessing of God  the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. That's one of the privileges of the priests  that they were able to bless in his name. I used to think, at the end of a service, this is  

a nice thing you do at a Sunday service. You have pronounce a blessing. Steve: I think there's a lot more to it. As there's a book that was written years ago  called "The Blessing," where this father would take his children in and lay his hands  on them. I think that's one of the not only a privilege of the Levites, it's a privilege of  parents. 

We can bless our children, and we can do it a day to day, telling our children that we  love them for who they are and not for what they've done. We can encourage them  like nobody else. Parents have tremendous potential as blessers, but we can also  curse them as well. A lot of responsibility in these things. 

Scott: That's the last thing I would say about this is if you're praying for a biblical  family, you might want to pray a little stronger and more specifically than that. Steve: Well, I ask people, I said, "Tell me one perfect family in the Bible," and there  aren't any, because right away you would think, "Well, what about David?" David's kids  tried to kill him. Life is hard, but God's with us in it, and God, as you said, will have  His will done on earth as it is in heaven, and we're going to keep reminding Him of  that promise. We're going to pray right now. 

Father, in Jesus' name, thank you for what you've revealed to us in these passages.  Thank you for what you're able to even take us deeper that we haven't seen up to this  point in 2026. 

I pray that you will bless us today with faith, bless us with courage, bless us with  fresh hope, and bless us with a connection with the Holy Spirit, our great teacher.  Bless us this week in continuing to press on and read your word. In Jesus' name.  Amen. 

Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the  Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the  show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.